.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Celebrating the rich expressive possibilities of the artistic gesture,
Georgia quale emerged during a period of intense experimentation in
Piero Dorazio’s oeuvre, as he began to shift towards a more geometric
sense of formalism in his painting. Moving away from the explosive,
brightly coloured patterns and experimental three-dimensional works
which had previously occupied his art, the series of transitional
paintings which emerged in 1957 contained a new sense of structure
and form in their composition, as line and gesture became a central
focus in his creative practice. While these lyrical, painterly works
still focused on the material qualities of paint, the flowing, dynamic
brushwork now frequently coalesced into a loose, grid-like pattern,
each stroke of pigment containing a distinct sense of linearity as they
criss-cross the canvas. Building the composition through dense layers
of pigment, Dorazio generates a new sensation of depth and movement
in these works, drawing the eye into the very centre of the painting.
For Dorazio, the 1950s were an important period of exploration and
travel, during which he was exposed to the ideas of a number of
important thinkers, writers, and artists across the globe. After highly
productive trips to both Paris and Prague, he visited America for
the first time in 1953, accepting an invitation to attend a seminar
at Harvard. This trip would prove revelatory to his artistic practice,
bringing him into contact with many of the leading figures of the
Abstract Expressionist movement, including Willem de Kooning, Franz
Kline, Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg and Helen Frankenthaler.
Drawn to the vibrant artistic community that centred around New
York, Dorazio remained in the United States for several months, only
returning to Rome in the summer of 1954. These experiences played
a key role in helping him perfect his own form of abstraction, opening
his art to the rich potential of the expressive painterly gesture. Indeed,
with its visceral handling of paint and decentralised composition
Georgia quale contains echoes of the paintings of de Kooning and
Pollock, while simultaneously hinting at the new direction in which
Dorazio’s art would travel over the following decade.
Georgia quale emerged during a period of intense experimentation in
Piero Dorazio’s oeuvre, as he began to shift towards a more geometric
sense of formalism in his painting. Moving away from the explosive,
brightly coloured patterns and experimental three-dimensional works
which had previously occupied his art, the series of transitional
paintings which emerged in 1957 contained a new sense of structure
and form in their composition, as line and gesture became a central
focus in his creative practice. While these lyrical, painterly works
still focused on the material qualities of paint, the flowing, dynamic
brushwork now frequently coalesced into a loose, grid-like pattern,
each stroke of pigment containing a distinct sense of linearity as they
criss-cross the canvas. Building the composition through dense layers
of pigment, Dorazio generates a new sensation of depth and movement
in these works, drawing the eye into the very centre of the painting.
For Dorazio, the 1950s were an important period of exploration and
travel, during which he was exposed to the ideas of a number of
important thinkers, writers, and artists across the globe. After highly
productive trips to both Paris and Prague, he visited America for
the first time in 1953, accepting an invitation to attend a seminar
at Harvard. This trip would prove revelatory to his artistic practice,
bringing him into contact with many of the leading figures of the
Abstract Expressionist movement, including Willem de Kooning, Franz
Kline, Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg and Helen Frankenthaler.
Drawn to the vibrant artistic community that centred around New
York, Dorazio remained in the United States for several months, only
returning to Rome in the summer of 1954. These experiences played
a key role in helping him perfect his own form of abstraction, opening
his art to the rich potential of the expressive painterly gesture. Indeed,
with its visceral handling of paint and decentralised composition
Georgia quale contains echoes of the paintings of de Kooning and
Pollock, while simultaneously hinting at the new direction in which
Dorazio’s art would travel over the following decade.